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tv   CNN Newsroom  CNN  February 17, 2013 10:00pm-11:00pm PST

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piers is back monday to keep america great with a presidents' day special taking on politics with a reagan and a hoover and a taft, presidential descendents on a state of the union. that is monday. i'm ashleigh banfield. thanks for watching, everyone. history made. danica patrick the first woman to win the pole position.
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don't be modest, you know you made history with this. >> i don't know how the answer that. >> and flying with kids is tough, but one woman says that a boozy passenger slapped her child and then called him a racial slur. the murder of john lennon and letters surfacing from his killer to the arresting officer. we are talking to the former cop. and american whiskey reverses course after fans are angry over a formula change. hello, everyone. i'm don lemon and we want to get you up to speed on the day's headlines. sports history has been made today, and a boy's club no more. danica patrick has won the pole at daytona 500, and the first woman to win the pole at daytona or any sprint cup race. i interviewed danica a while ago and stay right there, and i will show you the full conversation
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in a few moments. massive spending cuts are coming, and you should get ready for them and that what wyoming republican john barrasso said. remember the fiscal cliff a couple of months ago? well, they will kick in if nothing happens. democrats favor raising taxes and other alternatives to across the board cuts. so another deadline and countdown and plenty more budget fighting on capitol hill. a top white house aide is defending a new administration plan for immigration reform. the plan was leaked over the weekend, and angering the republicans and the democrats in congress working on their own. and marco rubio calls it dead on arrival in the current form. and senator john mccain says that chuck hagel will be probably confirmed as the next secretary.
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he believes he has enough votes to win the vote next week when the senate reconvenes. and in russia, they are trying to calm down after that meteor plowed through friday. some say they are afraid to stand by the windows remembering that cosmic explosion. it injured more than 1,000 people and damaged thousands of buildings. john lennon's killer wrote chilling letters and sent them to the officer who arrested him. now the officer is speaking out for the first time. mark david chapman wrote steve spiro in 1983. he wanted to be friends with the officer, and he had other questions and requests as we. i spoke earlier with officer steve spiro. >> reporter: steve, what did you think when the letters were showing up in the mailbox and they are fascinating to read. what did you think?
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>> i was shocked. i said, why are you sending this to me? but when you spent five hours with somebody, you get to know them a little bit. and he was -- he was still selling himself three years after the murder that he wanted to be infamous. >> i can't -- i can barely read this here, but he said that the reason he wanted to write to you from the time, and he goes on the say from the time i guess of the arrester to vent, he says -- >> right. >> -- i felt very close to you and he is obsessed with the "catcher in the rye" and talks about the character holden in "catcher in the rye "and he is asking you the read it and specifically talking about his particular copy we he believes that he left at the crime scene or in your patrol car. >> yes, he left ate at the crime scene. >> did you give it back to him? >> no, i vouchered it and went to the district attorney's office as evidence. >> why did he want you to read it? in the letters he said, i want you read it, because i want you
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to know about what holden says about the phoniness. >> well, he said about the phoniness that the rich people don't give to the certain charities that, you know, he would like. >> so, steve, why are you releasing the letters now? >> well, i'm 66 years old, and they have been sitting here for 30 years. and i decided that to sell them. i believe that the parole board should see that three years after this guy killed john lennon that he admits that he had a hit list.
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the d.a. knows that. but a lot of people don't know that he had a hit list to serve his purpose. it was not just john lennon. and this is important if the parole board is ever going to think of letting him out. >> you say in the letters that the sorts of things that are in this, in these letters that it would ensure that john lennon's killer might never get paroled, you said because he had a hit list. who else was on that hit list? >> well, i don't know what the parole board really thinks, but i think that the world should know that there was a hit list. >> who else was on the hit list. >> not only john lennon, but it was walter cronkite, george c. scott, jackie onassis and -- i'm trying to think of who else. >> were these names in the letters to you? >> no. see, i was trying to get him to admit that. you see, i had known through the
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investigation in the d.a.'s office that he had named these people. to the psychiatrist, but they were not going allow that to hit the street. so i figured if i could get him to mention it in a letter, i could, you know, confirm it. but he said other people would serve its purpose. that is what he meant by that with the hit list. he says, you know, and the d.a. knows the names. >> do you ever go back now to on the upper west side and ever go back and walk by the dakota? >> yeah, i have been there a few times. it is not a great place to visit anymore. it is a magnificent building and everything, but what i felt then was that it was so sad that he died, because he had a son the same age as mine. and i said, here, this kid is going to grow up without a father. i couldn't care a less if he never wrote another song or whatever, but it was the fact
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that this guy was a father and he was enjoying the hell out of it. >> steve spiro. tragic news in, police officials confirm that singer mindy mccready has committed suicide. the 37-year-old who broke on to the music scene in the mid-1990s and since then her career up and down with the drama of a very troubled personal life. again, this is just into cnn and confirmed. i want to go live now to los angeles and dr. drew penski, an addiction medical specialist and host of hln's "dr. drew" and you have worked with her before. and we are actually confirming now through your contacts as well that she has died. what can you tell us about what happened to her? >> well, i don't know if people may or may not be aware, but she had been doing well and things
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were looking up for her. she had children with a boyfriend who ended up killing himself a few weeks ago. she was struggling after that. actually was admitted herself to a psychiatric facility, and there's a cautionary tale here about the stigma of mental illness and the way in which the public attacks celebrities of which take care of themselves, and she was so fearful of the stigma and the way people were responding to her being hospitalized that she checked herself out prematurely and we have what we have. >> as i sit here looking at the picture, i am remembering a story from a while back that involved a child in custody with her? >> yes, a long struggle to regain custody of her child whom she finally just recently had custody again, and again, establishing a stable home with her boyfriend and things went off on a bad direction after he killed himself. again, i have no direct knowledge of this, but this is what i am understanding.
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i did hear from very concerned friends that she was struggling a few weeks ago, so i had not seen her in years, but i reached out to here her, and she sounded good. >> but you knew her personally -- >> no, no. i treated her for three weeks in a celebrity rehab episode three years ago and i always had contact with her for various levels, and i did not treat her and i was not her physician, but when i heard she was struggling, i did reach out to her and urged her to go take care of herself and get to a facility if if she needed and there was good support around her to do that, but the biggest fear was stigma and if what people would think if she took care of herself. that is the most distressing part, and we have lost her and, did not have to go down like that. >> people have all kinds of illness, and cancer, and you can have brain tumors and there is so much of a stigma of matters of that matter.
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>> that is precisely the point. it is all about mental illness and people have just ignored that. we want it to be a weakness and a moral issue or anything but a problem with our brain function. not only that, but one of my hopes was in bringing celebrity rehab out was to show how serious addiction was. and when one of my cancer patients would die, we would celebrate a few years of good life, and people don't understand that addiction is the same prognosis and if you have other mental issues on top of that, it is so much worse. this is not an addiction death, but it is interesting that had her boyfriend had not died no, way we would have been in this position right now. >> we talk about the warning signs, but really, anything that, is there anything that you can do when someone is in this predicament or up to them?
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>> yes. no, don. the point is that suicidality usually passes, and that is why we hold people against their will. so if you know somebody who is even contemplating or thinking passively about it or god forbid begins giving things away, you take that person to a hospital, and you deal with it like a medical emergency, and it is a life threatening event that oftentimes when people are held for a period of time passes. they are thankful when they are held against their will. they may not go willingly, but they are thankful when given the appropriate care. and the bottom line is that care works if it is sustained. the kind of care that somebody like mindy needs and millions of americans out there is not like a car wash where they are fixed, but it is ongoing and regular maintenance in order to prevent deadly outcoming. >> again, i think that it is important what you said and i don't want it to be glossed over to not lose the importance, but
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you said it is no different than an addiction, because we will hear about the death of whitney houston dying partially because of an addiction or weakened heart or what have you, but addiction problems and mental illness aed you said there is not a difference between the two. >> between cancer and mental illness, and people don't understand that this is a brain disease. don, you and i were here last year talking about whitney houston and we had the same conversation that people were not stepping up and getting her the care she needed, and lo and behold, you have a death. this is a deadly process, and it has to be given the priority and the intensity of services and much more resources than we give this one that is treatable and can prevent people from dying prematurely. >> when you think of someone who has as much as mindy mccready had as a promising career and money by most accounts and most
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than most americans have, and how do you lose sight of that and go down this dark hole and end up taking your own life. how does that happen? >> well, it is an interesting question, because people would think that if you had all of these things, that you would not get depressed, and that is simply not true. mental illness is not discriminatory in terms of who it affects or what socioeconomic, and obviously f your life is stressful, you are are more prone to these things, but just because you have a lot, and remember that what is really important for human beings is other people, important relationships, and she lost a crucial relationship in her life. this is somebody she loved deeply. and by the way, let's not lose
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sight of the fact that there are people around mindy here who are suffering greatly tonight, because she was a deeply loved woman. >> and 37 years old, and dr. drew, we have to move on, but since you said you knew her, but you were not a close friend of hers. >> no, i treated her once and acquaintance later and we will deal with the whole legacy tomorrow night on my show. >> with the limited experience that you did have with her, there is usually something about every single person that i meet that is memorable. what do you remember about her? >> you know what it was that, and it is going to be glib, but it is her smile, because she was a beautiful woman, and she would, and she had the potential to really light up the room. she was a warm person. she had a lot of struggles, and she has had a lot of chaos in her life over the years, but what attracted everybody to her is precisely that, that she was, and lovely is the word that comes to mind for me, and she was never otherwise. >> okay. dr. drew 9:00 p.m. eastern will be talking about the death of mindy mccready and 9:00 p.m. on hln tomorrow night, and make sure you tune in. thank you, dr. drew. [ indistinct shouting ]
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pythons has paid off for lucky hunters. cash prizes were awarded for the most and the largest. a 14-footer was worth $1,000 to the hunter who killed it. look at that thing. another hunter snagged the top prize of $1,500 for killing 18 of the giant snakes, and all 68 snakes were killed, and the game officials fear that they will wipe out the wildlife in the florida everglades unless they are killed. nobody likes to be on the plane with a fussy toddler and it is probably more difficult if it is your baby, but one woman was traumatized by a man sitting next to them who slapped her toddler. we have this story. >> reporter: jonah bennett is a smart and smily 19-month-old, but it is what happened on the delta flight that has his parents doing anything but
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smiling. >> he hit a child. he said a what he said, and that it is disgusting. >> reporter: jessica bennett and her son were flying to atlanta and they sat next to this man, joe huntley from idaho. >> he was rude and belligerent. >> reporter: she said that he wreaked of alcohol and drank on the plane, but as the plane descended, jonah was fussy and the already uncomfortable flight was worse. >> i was having trouble comforting him and that is when the guy made his comment to me. >> reporter: as the court document it is a states, this is when he told jessica to shut that n-word baby up, but it didn't end there. he used the slur a second time and then slapped jonah hitting him in the eye. >> i could not believe that he would say something like that to a baby or about a baby and to hit him, i felt like i was in another world.
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i was shaking. >> jessica says that other passengers eventually came to her aid and they were given a new seat. but while jonah is back to a curious toddler, they call his actions heinous, and they want something done. >> the evidence is sufficient enough to support what we are saying, and i hope that he is punished as much as he possibly can be. >> reporter: it is an experience that bennetts never want to go through again, but one that this family will think about the next time they fly. >> i think that i will be replaying it the whole time. very traumatic. >> dave berggren from our affiliate kare. and joe hundley has been suspended from his job, and charged with assault. his attorney says, quote, we want the case to move along as it is supposed to, and we hope it will resolve itself. a powerful force hits the golf course, the president and tiger tee up for a round of golf in florida.
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president obama must be feeling confident in his golf game these days, because the white house confirms that he played 18 holes with tiger woods. the president is on a mini vacation to a florida resort this weekend. his foursome included the owner of the course who is a major democratic donor. and firefighters intercepted three small planes that were flying in the president's air space. senator john mccain has been
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leading the republican charge against the response in benghazi as well as the nominee of chuck hagel. does mccain have a bigger strategy in play or is he just trying to get to the truth? i talked about it to l.z. granderson and ana navarro, and i started with the tough new comments from mccain on "meet the press." >> you said a cover-up, and a cover-up of what? >> of the information of concerning the deaths of four brave americans. the information has not been forthcoming. you can obviously believe that it has, but i know that it hasn't. and i will be glad to send you a list of the questions that have not been answered. >> l.z., is he correct?
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is there a white house cover-up when it comes to the 9/11 attack on the consulate and benghazi in libya? >> well, he sure seems to think so. i don't know why he is so hell bent on trying the find more answers after we have gotten pretty much everyone who was directly involved with what happened in benghazi already on the record. i really am just wondering if he doing this to try to sure up the cred to be the military's voice and the servicemen and women understand that he will fight for them every step of the way, but other than that, i don't know what productive thing can come out of the conversation. >> ana, it does seem that he has been on a mission going after the president in benghazi and others in the white house and take on his old friend chuck hagel in the confirmation hearing for defense secretary. what is he after here? >> doing his job. he understands that his job as a senator is not to rubber stamp the nominations, but to advice and consent and scrutinize the nominees. if not now, when? what he is doing on benghazi and what he has done along with other senators like kelly ayotte and others and were it not for the john mccains and the kelly ayottes and others that it was duped by a video. because of the activity, there
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is a scathing report about the negligence and the breaches of security of the state department. there have been recommendation made and there may be american lives saved in the future, because of this saga with john mccain right now. so i 'm very proud of him for having done it. >> ana navarro and lz granderson. we are following some breaking news after a country music singer dies after taking her own life. and also, we will talk about what is next for the catholic leader. like an available heads-up display on the 2013 lexus gs. there's no going back. on the 2013 lexus gs. google's backyard for the wbing it on challenge.. [fight bell: ding, ding] what's your preferred search engine? search engine, uhh, probably google. if we do a side by side blind test comparison, and you end up choosing google, you get an xbox.
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it is half past the hour and we want to get caught up on the headlines here. we have breaking news coming in to cnn from the country music world. officials in arkansas are confirming that singer mindy mccready has been found dead. she committed suicide. the 37-year-old committed suicide at a home in arkansas. mccready had a history of addiction and mental illness. stay right there, because my conversation with dr. drew penski, and she worked with him and the medical show for a short time and my interview with him is coming up here on cnn. mindy mccready, 37 years old has been found dead after a self-inflicted gunshot wound. the mastermind of the world trade center bombings says he is not a security threat, and he wants his communications lifted. the man has been in solitary
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confinement since 1998. he was sentenced to life plus 20 years. now facing murder charges, south african sprinter oscar pistorius has dropped out of several races including one set for april in the u.s. although he is under contract to run, the management company said he is dropping out to deal with the faces he is charged with. he is accused of shooting his girlfriend model reeva steenkamp and now a long awaited journey begins on a ten-day tour including the u.s. sanchez says she does not want to tamp her criticism of cuba, but she does plan to return.
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and this is the second to the last time that pope benedict will address the crowds of faithful from the windows at the square. thousands of people turned out to have him ask for prayers for the next pope. ben wedeman is covering the story for us in rome. >> reporter: a much larger crowd crammed into st. peters square to hear pope benedict give his penultimate prayer. he asked for them to pray for him and the next pope. the pope is now going into a week-long lenten retreat. this is an annual tradition, and part of the lenten season. when he reemerges, he will convene the last angelis prayer and then step down as the pontiff. it is not clear when the conclave, that meeting of 117
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cardinals assembled to vote for the next pope will meet. however, a senior vatican spokesman on saturday said that, it could happen earlier than planned, before the 15th of march. i'm ben wedeman, cnn, reporting from rome. >> all right. thank you, ben. a cold day to talk about global warming. thousands descended on the national mall to demand action on climate change. at sleep number, we recognize the incredible diversity of human beings, and know that up there with your social security number and your phone number is another important number. your sleep number. so we created the extraordinarily comfortable sleep number experience. it's a collection of innovations designed around a bed with dualair technology that allows you to adjust to the support your body needs - each of your bodies. and you'll only find it at a sleep number store.
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a huge rally at the national mall in washington today as thousands, well they pleaded for more action on climate change. chris lawrence talked to those who braved the freezing temperatures hoping it will all lead to changes in the u.s. energy policy. >> reporter: don, it has been one of the coldest days of the year here in washington, but it
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did not stop tens of thousands of people from jamming the national mall, and then marching from here right past the white house. even though president obama is away in florida, the message that they wanted to send the him is clear. they want two things. they want the environmental protection agency to establish stricter emission standards on the existing power plants and not just future plants that will be built down the line. they also want president obama to kill the extension of the keystone pipeline. that is the oil pipeline that is coming from canada and would cut through the united states and bring all of the way to the gulf coast. a lot of folks here are younger voters or younger people who say, even though the u.s. right now may be as focussed on the debt ceiling and other issues, it is time to look further down the line. >> i am only 16, and some day i hope to have my own kids, and i think that this is -- i want them to live in a world that's, you know, like environmentally safe and natural. >> keystone xl is a dirty and dangerous pipeline to literally cut the country in half carrying
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a dangerous fuel, and it will cause run away climate change. >> reporter: on the flipside, folks say tighter emission standards have already cost some jobs at coal plants in places like west virginia and tightening them further is only going to squeeze that part of the economy even more, and sol of the higher prices will be passed on to you and me as consumers. they also argue that the keystone pipeline will be safe with the technology today and bring jobs to places like nebraska and also help the u.s. to become more energy independent. don? all right. thank you, chris. the big stories in the week ahead from wall street to hollywood, and our correspondents will tell you what you need to know. we begin with what is happening tonight at the pentagon. >> i'm barbara starr at the pentagon. defense secretary leon panetta was to be home in california in retirement, but now that congress will not deal with the chuck hagel nomination for another ten days, panetta still is on the job. he will travel to brussels for a nato summit to talk about
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afghanistan and other security issues. when the summit is over on friday, the big question, does he come back to the pentagon or does he try once again to go home to california? >> i'm poppy harlow in new york and while the markets are closed monday for the presidents' day holiday, but when they reopen tuesday, we will get key earnings and economic reports. the latest existing home sales numbers will come out wednesday which will help us to see if the housing recovery is continuing, because existing home sales account for about 90% of the overall housing market. on the earnings front, we will hear from walmart and marriott and all eyes on dell as the computer maker reports its quarterly numbers. founder michael dell has made a $24 million bid to take it private, and whether the shareholders will sign on is the
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big question. we will keep an eye on that and all of the business news coming up on cnn money. i'm a.j. hammer and we count down the road to the oscars next weekend, and we will go one on one with oscars host seth macfarland and you will see how he is getting ready for the epic gig. and danica patrick has been surrounded, but now she is atop the pole sitters. my interview with her next. hi. hi. i'm here to pick up some cacti. it should be under stephens. the verizon share everything plan for small business.
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nascar driver danica patrick
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is going to be known for more than the commercial star power, because she the pole sitter for this year's daytona 500 and i spoke with her not long after the ground breaking achievement and i asked her if she understood the history mark this is? >> understanding it, yes. understanding the scope of what that means and what it will end up meaning or if any is something that happens down the road. in the moment, it's about thinking about what i need to do for next sunday and try to make some more history. >> tell us about the reaction from your fellow drivers, including your team owner tony stewart? >> well, tony came over and we had gotten the pole and
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qualifying was overwith, and he came over the say good job, and, you know, for me, i just wanted to tell him thank you forgive meg the chance and giving me the crew and the car and the job with his team to go out to do something like that. it means a lot, and it goes a long way when somebody like tony stewart believes in you. >> i met tony stewart a couple of years ago doing a interview for daytona 500 and he could not have been more gracious. a very gracious man. let's talk more about you. winning the pole is one thing, and now you have to go out the race in a 125-mile qualifying race and then main event sunday and how do you prepare for this this week? >> well, i'm going to hope that i can have a little bit of time off between now and the time we hit the track, but i'm racing in the nationwide race which is going to be a good help for the race sunday in the daytona 500, so i will be racing saturday and sunday and getting out there in traffic to see what is it like to be around other cars and we have to be smart about what we do out there on the track. if we crash in practice or the duals which is a race that we don othursday, we don't get to start in the front row, so we have to be a little bit smart, but it does not mean that we
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can't get the chance to see what it feels like to be around the other cars. >> listen, don't be modest, you won this time, and won the pole position, so what are you doing this time that is different or better than you were doing before or better than the other drivers? >> i don't know if i know how to answer that. i mean, you know, i -- all i can do as a driver when i qualify at a place like daytona is to be smooth and not let the car bind up too much and let it take the head and let it go where it wants to go a little bit and yet keeping a minimum distance as little as possible, but other than that, it is very much about the crew. i know you told me not to be
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modest, but it is very much about the crew and the engine and the car, and those elements have to be in place for you the go out there to be able to have a chance at the pole. >> and you were also modest when you answered the history question, but you said that you do understand that you made history today. it is a ground-breaking, but do you understand that there are young women and little girls at home watching you and who all of the sudden today, will say, i can become a racecar driver and be a danica patrick and little boys and my producer, but little boys have had role models in racing from the beginning, but you are a role model for little girls do. you get that? >> i love to go beyond racing in general to just kind of break gender barriers, i feel that one of the coolest things is to be able to think that parents and their kids are having that conversation at home about it. and to, you know, i have heard stories about a kid, whether a little boy or girl, and mommy or daddy, that is a girl out there racing, and then they can have the conversation to say, you can do whatever you want to. your gender does not matter, but the passion is what matters. that is cool. >> well, cool girl power. by the way, danica's fellow
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driver michael waltrip will be racing for newtown, connecticut, at the daytona 500 and driving the sandy hook school support fund toyota and there it is right there. the car will honor the 26 victims of the sandy hook elementary shooting, and waltrip will ask people to make $10 donations to the school support fund. good job. hundreds were hurt and buildings damaged when a meteor crashed over russia this week. some are shaken by the whole thing and some of the youngest were traumatized by the whole thing. their story is next.
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what a great day it was friday for the thousands of people who finally got off of the cruise from hell. that was the carnival ship that was dead in the water for days leaving the passengers to sleep on the deck and walk around in raw sewerage. last night on saturday night live, the cast tried to imagine
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what it was like aboard that ship. >> now before we move on, we want to designate a few more areas on the boat as toilets, okay. all right. what have we got here? the superstar karaoke bar is now officially a toilet. >> okay. >> and the blue iguana cantina is now a toilet. >> just in time. okay. good. and the bonsai sushi restaurant, that is still a sushi restaurant, so you want to get in there soon before it becomes a toilet actually. >> all right. really not famous until in america "saturday night live" has had its way with you. and the makers mark said it goofed by trying to water down the whiskey. they should have remembered coca-cola. and the kentucky distiller says it won't change the makers mark, because they said they would have to cut the alcohol volume to meet the rising global demand, but after being besieged
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with customer complaints they go back to 45% volume 90 proof. the images of that meteor crashing into remote russia are chilling and the blast sent people scrambling for cover and thousands of people hurt. among them hundreds of schoolchildren though the event lasted 32 seconds, it is having a lasting effect. phil black has a report on how it has impacted the children. >> reporter: this small siberian village is usually a quiet place. 1,000 people living south of the city. but on friday morning, they, like everyone in the region, were shocked by what they saw. an intense light followed by a
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trail of smoke across the sky. kindergarten worker says that the 22 children in this room ran to the windows when they saw the light. but she felt that something was wrong and moved them away. she said she was still facing the windows when the meteor's shock wave hit. as the windows blew in, the flying glass cut olga's hands and face, and she said she did not notice, because she was worried about the children. most were safe, but some were terrified and one was bleeding heavily. 3-year-old sasha suffered deep cuts to the hands and face. her mother ran to the kindergarten after she heard the blast. i was shaking she says, and i grabbed her and started to calm her down.
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a lot of the kids were crying, too. this lady was also in the room that morning and not hurt physically by the blast, but her mother says she is traumatized and too afraid to stand near the windows and keeps asking if the glass is going to break again. ekaterina says that she understands what the children of the village are feeling, because she said that the blast is so terrifying that it rekindled her own memories of the world war ii. most of the visible damage to the region and the buildings can be repaired, but the meteor's impact on some will take longer to heal. phil black, cnn, russia. >> all right, phil. a troubled country singer has died. mindy mccready committed suicide tonight weeks after her boyfriend took his own life. up next, dr. drew talks about treating mccready for addiction. chances are, you're not made of money, so don't overpay for motorcycle insurance.
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sign up now at hiltondouble.com. mindy mccready a country history with a string of hits and turbulent life is dead. cnn has confirmed that mccready committed suicide at her home in arkansas. the sheriff in cleburne county says she shot herself there. outside of her successful country music career, mccready struggled with addiction and mental illness and even agreeing to be treated on a tv reality show hosted by dr. drew penske. i talked to dr. drew about her a short time ago. >> i don't know if people may or may not be aware, because she was doing well and things were looking up for her, and she had children with a boyfriend who ended up killing himself a few weeks ago. she was struggling after that.